Cornell University's Lake Source Cooling (LSC) facility draws water from Cayuga Lake and uses it to cool campus buildings before discharging back into the Lake. Although the system operates as a "closed loop" system (i.e. no water or contaminants are added to the water), the discharge from the cooling facility does contains phosphorus that was in the water when withdrawn from the Lake.
DEC has issued a State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit to regulate the levels of phosphorus and other substances in the facility discharge. Previous permit conditions included Cornell University to fund a $2.1 million study and develop a water quality model to characterize and quantify sources and impacts of the phosphorus to support DEC's development of a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) plan. The history of the LSC permit is listed below.
